'What is great about this exhibition is that it’s a thing in itself,' says Es. 'Exhibitions like this can often end up as footnotes to a live event, which is frustrating. But walking into this exhibition, the artefacts are intriguing in themselves. That they are traces of a production is just one aspect of what’s involved.'

For the exhibition, Es envisaged melding the video design used in the production with conventional video in order to tell the story of the creative people involved in a major new opera production. To achieve this, the process of creating the costumes and dyeing them with ‘ink stains’ was filmed, and the footage projected onto dresses in the main entrance foyer. You can see the full process of dyeing the costumes and the making of Donna Anna's dress on our YouTube channel.

'The projections in the exhibition posed several technical challenges,' says Tom Nelson, ROH Creative Producer. 'We are working in a Grade 1 listed building, in an area with lots of daylight and limited space. There were also concerns about conservation due to the heat dissipation from the projector.’ The exhibition uses a new bright projector by Casio that works at short distances and uses LED-hybrid technology to minimize heat.

'The end result is a really strong visual narrative that has never been achieved before in a Royal Opera House exhibition,' says Tom.

Exhibitions can be visited for free during normal daytime opening at the Royal Opera House, Monday-Friday, 10am–3.30pm. Before making a special visit, please call +44(0)20 7304 4000 to check that the Front of House spaces are open.